In a previous post I explained how important the kerygmatic burden is for interpreting the Old Testament. The kerygmatic burden is the prophetic message that the author of the biblical text had for his specific, contemporary audience. In that post, I promised to revisit this topic, giving special attention to the implications for those Old Testament texts that we see fulfilled in the New Testament. So that’s what we will do here, using Isaiah 7:14 as a case study: “A virgin shall conceive.”
The Traditional, Christian Interpretation of Isaiah 7:14
Just taking a look at several translations reveals different ways of interpreting Isaiah 7:14. The title of this post comes from the Douay translation, made from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.” This is the traditional, Christian understanding of the text. In fact, the first chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew explicitly quotes this verse as a prophecy of the virgin birth:
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; 19 and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; 21 she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and his name shall be called Emman′u-el”(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.
Isaiah 7:14 in the RSV
I took that translation of Matthew 1:18-25 from the Revised Standard Version (my preferred English translation). But look at how the RSV translates the source text in Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son.” Obviously, though a “virgin” and a “young woman” can be the same person, they are not exactly synonyms. Not every virgin is a young woman, and not every young woman is a virgin.
Isaiah 7:14 in Modern Translations
You might suppose that this is just clumsy translation work, but scanning other translations demonstrates that the RSV is in good company. Plently of translations have something besides “the virgin shall conceive.” The New Jerusalem Bible, for instance, says, “the young woman is with child and will give birth to a son.” The 1917 Jewish Publication Society version has, “the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son.” (The reason that this is so close to the RSV has to do with their common history as revisions of the King James Version).
The 2011 Revised Edition of the New American Bible, the official Bible translation of the Catholic Church in the United States, really grabs our attention. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; the young woman, pregnant and about to bear a son, shall name him Emmanuel.” (The NABRE really over-translates, and creates more problems). So, let’s talk about what is going on in the original, Hebrew text of Isaiah 7:14.
The Hebrew of Isaiah 7:14
We’ll start with verse 14, and then telescope out to the broader context. The word that is causing all of the fuss is the Hebrew word “almah.” An almah, strictly speaking, is a young woman. For instance, it’s used to refer to Miriam, the young girl who watches over her baby brother Moses when he is placed in the basket on the Nile. An almah is probably a virgin, but this is not its technical sense. In fact, there is another Hebrew word that really does mean “virgin” that could easily have been used here if that had really been Isaiah’s intention, “betulah.” So, on points of technicality, these modern translations that use “young woman” or an equivalent thereof to translate almah really are more precise than “a virgin shall conceive.”
Context Is King
I’ll explain the fascinating steps that the Holy Spirit took to get us to Matthew’s use of Isaiah 7:14, with “a virgin shall conceive,” in a bit. But first, I think that it is important to properly receive Isaiah’s kerygmatic burden. If Isaiah is not prophesying the virgin birth of the Messiah, what is he prophesying?
In my biblical interpretation courses at Ozark Christian College, Mark Scott taught us that “context is king.” Most of the time that we misunderstand a text of Scripture it is because we have not given due consideration to that text’s broader context. Most of the time this is fairly innocuous. The throw pillows at Hobby Lobby or the motivational posters at your local Christian bookstore are examples of this.
But sometimes taking a verse out of context is the premise for a dangerous cult.
Context Is King in Isaiah 7:14
Isaiah 7:14 has a specific textual context that does not directly have to do with the birth of the Messiah at all. Christians often forget this because of Matthew’s use of verse fourteen in isolation. If we want to know what the prophet Isaiah’s original kerygmatic burden was, we have to give due consideration to the entire chapter.
7 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzzi′ah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remali′ah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not conquer it. 2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with E′phraim,” his heart and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
3 And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go forth to meet Ahaz, you and She′ar-jash′ub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, 4 and say to him, ‘Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remali′ah. 5 Because Syria, with E′phraim and the son of Remali′ah, has devised evil against you, saying, 6 ‘Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Ta′be-el as king in the midst of it,’ 7 thus says the Lord God:
It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.(Within sixty-five years E′phraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be a people.)
9 And the head of E′phraim is Samar′ia,
and the head of Samar′ia is the son of Remali′ah.
If you will not believe,
surely you shall not be established.’”10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman′u-el. 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.”
Ahaz’s Crisis
Isaiah 7 is about a crisis facing Ahaz, the king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. He has just found out about a conspiracy between two of his most dangerous enemies, Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Usually these two powers were too occupied with their own personal feuds to bother with Judah. Ahaz had real cause for concern. These were not empty threats. He desperately needed encouragement, so God sent Isaiah to him with just that.
There are two messages in this portion of Isaiah 7. The first is recorded in verses 3-9. It is very clear: Ahaz has no cause to worry. Their conspiracy will not come to pass. Evidently Ahaz was not very reassured by this message, because God sends Isaiah back to him with another one, and this one is accompanied by a prophetic sign.
Isaiah’s Kerygmatic Burden
Pay attention to the meaning of the sign of the birth of this “Immanuel.” “Before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.” In other words, the birth of this child establishes a timeline for Ahaz. Before the child in question has reached the age of moral accountability, these foreign powers will have suffered their own disasters, and will no longer pose a threat to Judah. It is easier to exercise the virtue of hope when their is an end in sight. The prophetic sign is not that a virgin shall conceive, but that the child of this young woman will still be quite young when Rezin and Pekah will meet their demise.
So, this is the kerygmatic burden of Isaiah: Ahaz, have hope in God’s managing of this difficult political situation! And here is a sign to build hope on, a child named Immanuel, “God is with us.”
The Problem
Here’s the problem for traditional Christian readings of this text. Isaiah had to have delivered these messages before 715 BC, the year that King Ahaz died. How could the promise that a virgin shall conceive the Messiah 700 years later possibly provide any perceptible hope for doubtful Ahaz’s immediate situation? (NB: I am not saying that the promise of the Messiah’s birth is irrelevant to Ahaz. More on that in a bit). If the only proper interpretation of Isaiah’s Immanuel prophecy is the Christian one, it raises difficult questions. Sure, 700 years after the prophecy, Rezin and Pekah were no longer troubling Ahaz! But Ahaz wasn’t worried about them anymore for quite other reasons!
The point is, the birth of Jesus 700 years in the future couldn’t possibly bear any kerygmatic burden for Ahaz.
Isaiah’s Intent-Not “A Virgin Shall Conceive”
So, if Isaiah is not intending to predict that a virgin shall conceive the Messiah in Isaiah 7:14, what is his intent? It really does seem as though he is predicting the conception and birth of a child in months immediately following his message to Ahaz. Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly who the young woman in verse fourteen is. Some commentators have suggested that it is Isaiah’s own wife, or perhaps a wife or concubine of Ahaz. Personally, I think that Isaiah is pointing to a young woman serving in the palace of Ahaz when he says these words.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. At this stage in the prophetic message, the real point of the sign has little to do with the identity and career of little Immanuel. His name is the most important thing about him. “God is with” Ahaz and the people of Judah. Before Immanuel is old enough to eat solid food and be held accountable for wrong choices, Rezin and Pekah will disappear.
What Isaiah’s Kerygmatic Burden Means for Us Today
The Holy Spirit has a whole lot more to say here. But let’s pause and resist the temptation to rush on to greater things. Because the Holy Spirit has plenty to say in this original, literal sense of the text as Isaiah originally conceived of it. Let’s consider what Isaiah’s kerygmatic burden has to teach us today.
The immediate message of Isaiah 7 to Ahaz and Judah has a lot to say to us today. In texts like this, the literal sense is not aimed directly to us. Instead, it invites us to overhear it, and the indirect message has immense benefit. God is telling Judah that no matter what the political circumstances seem to indicate, He is with them. He is directing history to a certain goal. Ahaz and his people can trust God to accompany them through this crisis and protect them from every threat. Paranoia and despair are not an option for God’s people.
Now would be a good time to pause. Go back to the beginning of Isaiah 7 and read through the text again. Then read my brief interpretation of the literal sense of that text. Does that original sense of Isaiah 7 bear any relevance to our own life in the midst of today?
A Virgin Shall Conceive
This would be a gift on its own, but the Holy Spirit had more to say. About 200 years before the birth of Jesus, Greek-speaking Jews living in Alexandria produced a translation of Isaiah. This was later incorporated into the Greek version of the Old Testament. We call this translation the “Septuagint.” When those translators came to verse fourteen, they made an interesting choice. They translated almah with the Greek word parthenos. Unlike almah, parthenos technically does mean “virgin.” “A virgin shall conceive” is properly a translation of the Septuagint text of Isaiah 7:14.
What “A Virgin Shall Conceive” Meant for the Early Church
It is difficult to conceive of what the human translators had in mind when they did this. But for Matthew and the rest of the Christian community, the Holy Spirit’s intent is obvious. Beyond the political context of Ahaz’s day, God is sending another Child as a sign. This Child really is Immanuel, “God with us,” and not just named Immanuel. And this child, born miraculously of the Virgin Mary, in fact is the goal of history. He is the One who delivers God’s people through every crisis and from every threat. And yet again, paranoia and despair are not an option for God’s people. How can they be, when “God is with us” in Jesus?
Isaiah’s Kerygmatic Burden: “A Virgin Shall Conceive” and Its Ultimate Fulfillment in Jesus
Though Ahaz and Isaiah could not possibly know it, Jesus is the answer to the crises of their own day. The real problem with human history is that bullies like Rezin and Pekah keep showing up. One generation of political threats moves on only to have another, even more threatening one replace it. Our human existence is fraught with this recurring trope of conflict and anxiety. Peace is hard-won and ephemeral. This is true of the cheaper version of peace that our political commentators refer to. Think of all of the reporting on “peace talks” between warring factions. The more substantial peace referred to in the Hebrew word shalom is even more elusive. This is the real flourishing of a culture and the individuals who live in it,
A Virgin Shall Conceive “God with Us”
All of this is the result of sin, our rebellion and alienation from God. That is the real problem that Jesus comes to solve. But Christians know that just because we experience redemption does not mean that suddenly we become impervious to bullying. From the very beginning the Church has produced an army of martyrs. The machinery of coercion and violence has mutilated and mangled their bodies. Still, they have triumphed spiritually over these political forces. Rezin and Pekah are always with us. And yet, Christians know a “peace that passes understanding” because of Immanuel. God, in Jesus, is also always with us. And this is never so true as when we suffer, taking our place of fellowship with Jesus on His cross.
Somehow, the peace that Isaiah proclaims to Ahaz draws mysteriously from the peace offered by the second Immanuel. The Immanuel born of the Virgin truly is “God with Us.” Isaiah’s kerygmatic burden is blind to the greater intent of the Holy Spirit. And yet, it depends upon it for its full force. Christians can read the story of Ahaz and Immanuel with the eyes of faith. We can thank God that in our current political anxieties, Jesus is still “God with us.”